Minnesota Vikings: Josh Freeman will start vs. Packers

Vikings quarterback Josh Freeman will make his second start Sunday against the Green Bay Packers at the Metrodome. (Pioneer Press: Ben Garvin)

Job security dominated conversation at Winter Park on Tuesday, a day after the Vikings' second consecutive blowout loss, as coach Leslie Frazier eschewed lineup changes and vowed to start quarterback Josh Freeman in Sunday night's game against Green Bay at the Metrodome.

Frazier also said his coaching staff would remain intact after Monday night's uninspiring 23-7 loss to the previously winless New York Giants at MetLife Stadium. The Vikings, who fell to 1-5, have been outscored 58-17 in their past two games.

Freeman was grossly ineffective in his Vikings debut, completing just 20 of 53 passes (38 percent) for 190 yards and no touchdowns with one interception. With only one full practice week commanding the first-team offense, Freeman had limited exposure to Minnesota's offensive scheme and personnel. Communication breakdowns weren't surprising.

But Freeman's mechanics clearly were rusty as he overthrew his receivers 15 times, according to Pro Football Focus. He had not played since Sept. 22, when a third straight loss with Tampa Bay landed him on the bench.

"If I had to do it over again, I don't think I'd do it any differently under the circumstances," Frazier said about the decision to start Freeman, who signed Oct. 7 with the Vikings after he was released by Tampa Bay.

"I knew exactly why we made the decision. Felt very confident going into the ballgame with the decision.

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It didn't work out for us this time. But there was nothing I look back at that week in preparation that would have indicated that we would have come up with zero points from an offensive standpoint."

Minnesota's lone touchdown came on a Marcus Sherels punt return.

The Vikings' offensive line, which returned last season's five starters, has woefully underperformed this season. The unit was unable to stop New York's overloaded defensive front, which stuffed Adrian Peterson's running lanes and invited Minnesota to try to counterattack with its unproductive passing game.

"It's a struggle," Peterson said of his blockers. "I've seen these guys perform well, and I know they can. This year is kind of in a funk."

Frazier was asked whether he can afford to remain patient with an offensive line that is not protecting the pocket or opening enough holes for Peterson to take pressure off the quarterback.

"I think we can get it fixed. We're beginning to run out of games here, so we've got to get it fixed in a hurry," Frazier said. "But we can get fixed what the problems are. The guys are playing hard, but we've got to get things fixed, for sure. We've got the right people to get that done."

Collectively, tackles Matt Kalil and Phil Loadholt, guards Brandon Fusco and Charlie Johnson and center John Sullivan are being manhandled at the line of scrimmage. Frazier said the play action and bootlegs that allowed Christian Ponder to manage a simple passing game while freeing up Peterson for 2,097 yards last season have not been executed well enough to relieve some of that pressure.

"We had some things that kind of made people have to respect our pass game -- to a degree," he said. "It didn't really change what they did completely, but it made them respect our passing game a little. You look at that Giants game and other people that are playing us, they're just coming and coming. We've got to do something to alter that. We went into it thinking we had a plan to get that done, and we couldn't connect. It hurts."

For an offense that depends on Peterson's ability to establish the run, it was hard to reconcile the Vikings' unbalanced attack.

Despite his limited grasp of the playbook, Freeman threw 53 times while Peterson only rushed 13 times for 28 yards in a game Minnesota trailed by only 10 points midway through the fourth quarter.

"We can be more balanced," Frazier acknowledged. "Some of it had to do with how well they were playing run defense and creating some situations we thought we could take advantage of in the passing game. We knew that they were going to put a lot of people in the box, like everybody does at the line of scrimmage, and we thought that we could take advantage of some things down the field with their secondary, and we weren't able to."